On The Roof
by Durgas Dragon
Summary: Zell goes after Seifer to find out what’s wrong. Sequel to 'After the Fight', but can be read alone.


**On The Roof**

_**Disclaimer: This is a purely fan-made piece that is using the world and characters from Squaresoft's (Square Enix) **_**Final Fantasy VIII **_**and is made entirely for enjoyment. No financial gain has been made in the making of this piece**_

_**Summary: Zell goes after Seifer to find out what's wrong**_

_**Author's Note: Written for Athame. Sequel to 'After the Fight', but can be read alone. Possible out-of-characterness and un-beta'd**_

_**Constructive Criticism is always welcomed**_

_**Published: 12 April 2009**_

_**Rating: T**_

**Zell pursed his lips and returned to his musing. If he left the Training Centre at 1135 hours and took the northern hallway, he could be at the cafeteria in 7.3 minutes IF:**

**A). the floor had been washed no more than four hours ago and no less than an hour ago;**

**B). Xu's military formation class didn't get let out early;**

**C). the party committee stayed in the Quad and the Dorm areas like they were supposed to;**

**D). the disciplinary committee didn't see him;**

**E). Irving wasn't roaming the halls;**

**F). Seifer was still in his room.**

**However, if he took the southern hallway, he could be at the cafeteria in 9.8 minutes IF:**

**A). Selphie didn't see him;**

**B). the floor had been swept in the last hour (but not the last fifteen minutes);**

**C). Squall stayed in his office;**

**D). the Garden wasn't flying over the Ester Plains;**

**E). the medical magic class was where it was **_**supposed**_** to be;**

**F). Seifer was still in his room.**

**Zell pondered his options as he squashed another grat. If he took the northern hallway and left two minutes later, he could avoid the disciplinary committee, but he ran the risk of the congestion being 68% higher. If he took the southern route, he could avoid the crowds, but would have further to go.**

**Of course, he could avoid a lot of that if he left at 1130 hours, but then he wouldn't have completed a full training session**** and they always got mad when people hung around the doors for too long...**

**So many tough decisions!**

**He finally decided to risk the northern hallway. If his calculations were correct and his luck stats were high, maybe things—**

_**CRASH!**_

**--Or not. Clearly luck was not on his side today.**

**"Watch where the fuck you're going, Chicken Wuss!"**

**Zell groaned. It sounded like Seifer was in one of **_**those**_** moods again, so Zell could kiss those freshly cooked hot dogs goodbye.**

**In fact, it sounded like Seifer was having a bad day (something Zell found hard to imagine happening on such a beautiful spring day), so he pushed the thoughts of his favouritest food in the whole wide world aside and focused on being a good friend.**

**"Sorry, Seif. Didn't mean to run into you." He bounced on the balls of his feet and thought about not thinking about food.**** He opened his mouth to tactfully ask Seifer why he looked so upset when the former bully shoved passed him rudely.**

**"Get your eyes checked, dumbass!"**** The tall blond snarled over his shoulder.**

**Zell blinked. This...was not normal behaviour. It was almost like Seifer was running—**

**"Hey, hey! Get back here!"**

**A cadet—one the Zell knew to be one of Seifer's protective unit—hurried in the direction of the retreating grey trench coat. He puffed a little as he approached Zell. "Hey!" He tried one more time. He paused and bent over, clutching at a stitch in his side. He looked up at Zell. "Help****...help a guy out?"**

**A Garden Faculty member rounded a potted plant. "Why isn't the Sorcerer's Traitor in his session?" He demanded crossly. "And why are you just standing here? Go and bring him back!"**

**He snarled when the winded guard tottered a few steps forwards. "Are you disobeying a direct order?"**

**"Goin', I'm going!" The out-of-shape cadet wheezed.**

**"I'm not talking to you," ****the Faculty member snapped. He glared at Zell. **

**While he bristled at being addressed like he was an idiot—he'd helped save the world, damn it!—Zell decided it would be best to play the stupid power game with the Garden Faculty member. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know that you were addressing me."**

**He got a condescending look. "Well, now you know! Go and bring him back now!"**

**Zell bit back the 'yeah, yeah, keep your pants on!' comment he wanted to make and set out after Seifer. Maybe if he did things right, he could claim he tried to get Seifer to come back to whatever he was fleeing and find out what the hell was going on.**

**After a quick circle, Zell hadn't found Seifer and so he tried to**** think of where the gunblader might have gone. There had been no Seifer in the Library (Sakura waved a little **_**too**_** eagerly at him, but at least she didn't flutter her eye lashes at him any more), or in the Quad or even causing another grat massacre in the Training Centre. The last thing made Zell a little worried; Seifer had a nasty habit of killing things when he was pissed off, so the fact that he wasn't there when he clearly was in such a funk didn't seem real.**

**Ducking passed the increasingly abusive Garden Faculty member, Zell darted down the dormitory hallway. ****He was going to try Raijin's 'room' (it was a badly kept secret that Raijin lived in Fujin's room instead of his own) and then he was going to have to get more creative. He knew that Seifer was probably hiding in a place Zell wouldn't think of for a very long time or he was moving around.**

**Raijin's room**** was empty, but it smelled fresher then a room with no-one living in should smell. After a few seconds, he saw why; the window was open.**

**Following his gut instincts (the ones that **_**weren't**_** telling him to blow this off and go get some hotdogs instead), Zell squeezed out and jumped down on to the roof.**

**He found Seifer sitting behind an air cooling unit, looking out at the budding forest as it went slowly by.**

**"Hey," he said, shifting on his feet slightly nervously.**** "Can I join you?"**

**"Fuck off, Chicken Wuss."**

**Zell decided to take that as an affirmative answer.**** He flopped down and waited for Seifer to either try to hit him or start the friendly insulting banter he liked to throw at Zell.**

**Zell shifted his weight and waited.**** Seifer would start up any moment.**

**He adjusted his seat and stopped his foot from twitching.**

**"Fuck! SAY somethin' already!"**

**Seifer gave him a look that was equal parts withering and amused. "Three minutes and twenty-two seconds. You just beat your old record by two seconds."**

**Zell scowled. "I can sit still fer longer than that!****"**

**"You?" Seifer snorted derisively. "You couldn't sit still if your life depended on it."**

**"Yeah, well, you couldn't stop bein' an asshole if **_**your**_** life depended on it."**

**"Fuck off."**

**Zell gave Seifer a sideways look. The older boy wasn't rising to any bait, and**** also wasn't making any attempts to pick on him. All was not right in the world. "Hey, you okay?"**

**"Can't you take a damn hint? Go the fuck away!"**

**"I can't do that."**

**"What, they ordered you to come after me and bring me back?"**

**"Well, yes," Zell said, but then hastily added "but that wasn't why. I'm not going to leave you up here by yourself when you need a friend."**

**"You're not my friend."**

**"Okay." It would be probably easier to just agree right now than to argue the point. "But I still ain't going anywhere."**

**Green eyes rolled. "Get it through your thick skull, numb nuts. You're not wanted!"**

**"You've said that."**

**"Then make like a teenager and beat it! How many times do I gotta say it?"**

**Zell shrugged, feeling the breeze playing with his hair and bringing the smell of spring with it. "I dunno."**

**Seifer glared. A couple years ago, it'd have made Zell nervous. "You are, without a doubt, the stupidest person on the planet."**

**"Prob'lly." Zell stretched his legs out and wiggled his toes. It was too nice of a day after too long of a winter for him to stay annoyed for long. "This gives a nice view, ya know?"**

**Seifer huffed in annoyance and returned to staring out over the budding trees.**

**Zell was not a person who could sit still or stay quiet for any length of time and he soon found himself rambling on some random tangents while he kicked out his legs. Any thought that fell in his head—save the one about food because he was NOT thinking about hot dogs—found its way out of his mouth and—**

**"They're trying to make me see those shrinks."**

**Zell tripped over what he had just been saying—something about dancing ochus—and blinked. "What?"**

**"They're going to try and make me see those shrinks."**

**"What shrinks? Why? Who?"**

**"****Hyne, are you stupid," Seifer sounded even more derisive than ever, but Zell was pretty sure it was because anything else would have been perceived as weakness by the gunblader. "I 'need' those nosey nutters because I've been 'brainwashed'."**

**He blinked. "Why do they think that?"**

**Seifer gave him the world's nastiest glare. "What **_**other**_** reason would I have for joining Her?" He snarled, a bitter mocking edge in his voice.**

**"That's it? That's the reason they're usin'?" Zell leaned back against the cooling unit. "What a bunch of dumbasses!"**

**Seifer snorted. "That's what I say."**

**"I mean, if you had changed or summin', I could see the need for brain-pickin'." Zell flicked his foot. "But you were an ass 'fore the War, you were one durin' it, and you're **_**still**_** an ass, now that it's over."**

**Seifer shot him another dirty look. "Thanks, Chicken Wuss."**

**"I could tell 'em that, if you want."**

**"Your help does more harm, moron. 'Sides, I don't need your help."**

**"Are you gunna hide every time they try to talk to you?"**

**"I **_**don't**_** hide."**

**"What do you call **_**this**_**?"**

**"I am," Seifer said with ****superior air of condescension, "getting my fill of vitamin D and making sure that I do not get seasonal depression."**

**"Seasonal depression? You dumbass, it's spring! Winter's over!"**

**"A lack of sunlight in life, no matter what the season is, will often lead to depression. And this dump breeds depression, so I have to make sure that I take all the proper precautions against it."**

**Zell opened his mouth and his stomach chose that moment to let him know that he had been ignoring it, and it wasn't going to be quiet about things, either.**

**Seifer ****gave him long look.**

**Ears burning, he muttered something about it being lunch time.**

**"****And you're not going to go away, are you?" Seifer sounded irritated, but Zell wondered if he heard a current of amusement running under the words. "Great, lucky me. I'm stuck with a dumbass Wuss hasn't eaten and now I have to listen to his stomach on top of his stupid ramblings." He stood up.**

**Zell scrambled to his feet and stumbled after the taller boy. "Hey! Hey, where're you goin'?"**

**"I'm not sitting around listening to your bodily functions as well as you running at the mouth." Seifer grabbed the edge of Raijin's window and easily hefted himself up and forwards. "I have troubles thinking of worse torture."**

**"Arse!" Zell flailed a little, being just short enough that he couldn't replicate Seifer's grace and ease.**

**Seifer rolled his eyes and then—much to Zell's complete and utter surprise—grabbed the back of Zell's coat and hauled the smaller boy in.**

**Zell knew his face was flaming and he wasn't sure that all of it was due to embarrassment. Seifer had used just one hand to pull him in; the strength that must have taken...**

**"Um, thanks," he muttered, scuffing his feet on the floor.**

**"Whatever, Chicken Wuss."**

**"Hey! Hey, I'm tryin' to be nice here! Don't walk off! You could be takin' lessons or summin' from me!"**

**"Oh, you should sign me up right away. I can't **_**wait**_** to start studying at Moronic U!"**

**"Yeah, well, better have a degree there than at Asshat U!" Zell hurried to keep up with Seifer. He was hungry and Seifer was being a particular bastard, but if the gunblader was left alone, there was no telling what would happen to him. He might get attacked by the cadets again, he might**** get caught wandering around the Garden without his guards...it was best if—**

**"Oof! What the hell, Seif! You can't jus'—hey Squall, Dr Kadowaki." Ze****ll bounced a little on his toes, embarrassed for swearing in front of the doctor. "What's happenin'?"**

**"Zell," the doctor nodded at him before turning to Seifer. "Seifer, I know that you aren't very excited about the therapy sessions, but they're for the best."**

**"I don't need a shrink," Seifer said coldly, shoulders squared and feet apart.**

**"The Garden Board think that it's for the best, and I agree with them." Squall cross his arms and glared.**

**"So now it's not enough that I have no privacy. Now you want into my head? Fuck you."**

**"If you don't agree to this—"**

**"Will I be given the boot? Please say that I will."**

**Squall glared harder. "We're not going to throw you out."**

**Dr Kadowaki made a small gesture. "We're not trying to get into your head, Seifer. After your ordeal with the Sorceress, we thought that it might be good for you to have someone to talk to about what happened."**

**"All that happened was that I picked the wrong side. Now, if you all excuse me, I have places to be."**

**"Where is your protective unit?" Squall demanded. "You shouldn't be walking around here unprotected."**

**Seifer's jaw tightened and Zell decided it was time for some Dincht interference. "He's goin' to lunch wit' me. I don't think he needs those cadets, do you?" As if on cue, Zell's stomach protested again about being ignored still.**

**Squall's eyes narrowed for a moment. "I suppose that would be all right, but don't make this a habit. And the discussion about your therapy sessions is not over. You will come to my office after you're done eating and get your schedule for your appointments."**

**Seifer clicked his heels together and sharply saluted. "JA, Princess Headmaster!" He said loudly, arm out and rigid. "HEIL!" He clicked his heels again and started goose-matching down the hallway.**

**Zell—trying hard to keep his face straight—waved to Squall and the doctor as he hurried after the taller boy.**** "That was mean!"**

**"Who cares."**

**"I'll talk to him," Zell said a few minutes later. "I'll tell him this new shrink idea is crap. And afterwards," he added hastily, before Seifer could tell him that he didn't want help, "we can go beat up some grats!"**

**Seifer shook his head. "You are a meddlesome dumbass. If you want to go annoy the Ice Princess instead of me, I'm not going to say no. Maybe then you'll go away."**

**Zell cuffed Seifer's arm cheerfully, already feeling better. Seifer wasn't being a big ass anymore, an indication that his mood had improved, it was a beautiful day out, and he had a plan to help his friend.**

**Spring was the time of new beginnings and possibilities, and Zell was ready to tackle them all.**

**But only after he got some hot dogs.**

_**x**__** Fin x**_


End file.
